I would feel a lot better having been a KS contributor to this than I would having been a KS contributor to Oculus. "Thank you for your contribution and now some other, better-connected investors and employees are going to make money off of their investment in us" is about the worst possible outcome of a Kickstart.

I'm not sure I agree with that last bit. The rewards for backers are there for a reason. When it comes to software projects -- especially games, you can frequently have access to test and beta versions and get the final product (depending on your backing level, this may be at a price lower or higher than the retail price). Additionally, it usually means you get to follow along in the development process, maybe even provide input or feedback. Another common reward is being made into a character in the game or providing another piece of content.

It may not sound like much, but it is a benefit. I for one got a real kick out of seeing my name in Broken Age's credit roll.

I've backed quite a few Kickstarter projects and so far, none that were successfully funded have failed. Some still might and that would be disappointing, but I wouldn't regret backing them in the least. I have "bought" the fun of being a small part of something and watching things develop.

You'll probably see that less and less. People start to learn that the end user is a horrible investor. A real investor knows that out of 10 projects more than 5 will fail. The end user doesn't. He gets really angry at any fail. A few months back there was a blog post in "lessons learned about kickstarter" style where they basically said you need to make sure it's already well funded and nearly beta before you go to Kickstarter and have a shot.